The Chicken Masterpiece

(Cady)

Hey everyone!This may just be my last blog entry of the trip, unless we end up getting to an internet cafe in Shanghai. The exchange is really coming to an end. The big trip, the one we spent nearly an entire year anticipating, is almost over. The fact that we'll be graduating soon, going off to college, voting in a presidential election, and fending for ourselves is really beginning to hit me. These realizations, along with the fact that I'll soon be back in Dover-Sherborn, are scary but so exciting. That doesn't seem entirely related to China, but this trip has been such an integral part of my senior year that I'm sure it's played a part in the whole "growing up" thing. Anyways, this blog entry is really supposed to be about Tuesday. So here we go.Our first and only class on Tuesdays is Chinese Painting. Unfortunately, our teacher wasn't actually there. We decided to paint anyways though (don't worry, Baker said it was fine). We were supposed to be making our "masterpieces" since it was our final Chinese Painting class. I felt a little disgruntled- we were supposed to be making brilliant works after all! Sure, I like Chinese Painting, but it's difficult and therefore sometimes very frustrating. On tuesday, however, I opened the book of birds to a rooster that I have been admiring since day one. I proclaimed, "I am going to make a chicken....and it is going to be a masterpiece!" And I did. Well, okay, the chicken isn't quite like the one in the book. I am very proud of it though, since it actually resembles a chicken MORE than it does a worthless blob. Mission codename chicken is successful.After I completed my masterpiece chicken, I was quite ready to retire my brushes. Drew was having painter's block, so we went together to get milk tea and lollipops while the other three continued painting. I will be quite sad when I no longer have every day access to milk tea. Also, lollipops here cost wu (five) jiao. Like a dime, shi (ten) jiao is equal to one yuan. Therefore, one yuan gets you two lollipops, which means that seven yuan, which is equal to one US dollar, get you fourteen lollipops. I just thought that I would impress that figure on you. Fourteen lollipops for one dollar. Oh, I love China. Then again, at the rate the dollar is falling, soon it may only buy thirteen lollipops. I would suggest that all US citizens go out and buy all fourteen lollipops while they still can.We did a variety of things in the afternoon. The tailor, once again, brought back our dresses. I was finally satisfied with mine- I'm actually quite happy with it now. As of today, Emily's is good now too. Success! Nick and I rehearsed for the "play." Have we written about that? We acted out scenes from The Million Pound Bank Note with a couple of my classmates and then performed them for my entire class today (I am writing this on Wednesday, by the way). I acted in a restaurant scene, speaking a total of three lines which I, much to the awe of my classmates, memorized after one practice. I was actually really impressed by how quickly they managed to memorize their lines since not all of them even speak English very well.After rehearsal, Doris and I took the bus home. Very crowded. Her uncle then picked us up and brought us to a nice restaurant where we had dinner with my host mom, her brother and his wife, and her mom. At home, my host mother has taken to forcing Doris and I to eat every last bite of every dish she prepares. Her mother is almost exactly the same as she is, so you can imagine that between the two of them urging me "eat more! eat more!" I certainly ate more. My first, second, and third stomachs were very, very full. Then home, shower, computer, bed. You know the drill. And that's about it for Tuesday.In exactly a week we will be on a plane bound for America! We're getting excited to see everyone back home. Nick even has a small posse of admirers lined up to meet him at the airport. Well, see you all then!Cady